Liquid crystal display (LCD) devices have found widespread commercial applications in a variety of fields ranging from calculators to television sets because of their excellent display performance rivaling that of the cathode ray tube, their space-saving features exemplified by thin and light-weight construction, and other useful features such as low power consumption.
Color displays are based on an “additive color mixing process.” When two or more colored light beams enter the human eye, the light beams are combined on the retina and perceived as different colors. Based on this principle, any color can be obtained by additively mixing light beams of the three primary colors—R (red), G (green) and B (blue)—in appropriate proportions.
One way of achieving “additive color mixing” is a “simultaneous additive color mixing process.” In color LCD devices, three color filters corresponding to R, G and B are used in combination with three LCD panels, and three color images are simultaneously projected onto a screen such that the color images are superimposed and merged into one displayed image.
Another way of achieving “additive color mixing” is a “successive additive color mixing process.” This process utilizes the temporal resolution limit of the human eye. More specifically, this process utilizes the phenomenon that when successive color changes are too fast for the human eye to perceive, the persistence of the previous color causes the color to be mixed with the succeeding color such that the successive colors are combined and perceived as one color to the human eye.
Both the “simultaneous” and “successive” mechanisms for mixing colors are able to achieve any desired color for each pixel of a display, such that the display provides a high resolution image as well as excellent color reproduction.